Brash positive after opening outing at worlds

Olympic gold-medal winning showjumper Scott Brash was in a positive frame of mind after making his first appearance at the World Equestrian Games in Normandy.

World number one Brash was the last of four Brits to compete aboard Hello Sanctos, his successful Olympic ride from London 2012, and was unlucky to have a pole down.

That added four seconds to his time to finish on 85.21 seconds while Michael Whitaker was first up aboard Viking and went clear in 85.12 before Joe Clee repeated the trick.

He clocked 85.49 aboard Utamaro D’Ecaussines and then Spencer Roe became the third Brit to go clear with Wonder Why in 88.12 leaving Brash happy with the team’s outing.

“To be fair it was my fault [having the fence down],” said Scott after his round. “I was a touch too deep on the turn-back and he jumped up and touched the back rail.

“But he jumped very, very good and I’m happy with the way he’s jumping and for sure we’re going to improve over the next few days hopefully.

“The lads have done a great job, three clears is fantastic; there are a lot of fast rounds and it is a little bit about the speed but the horses are all jumping good and riding good so fingers crossed.”